Share this:

Even on the same day they added to it, Cal’s roster took a sizable hit depth-wise.

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, one-time quarterback Ross Bowers is one of seven players who have decided to transfer from the Golden Bears football program. Another of the seven, redshirt freshman running back Biaggio Ali Walsh, had announced on Twitter earlier this month that he would be leaving the Bears after appearing in 10 games this season.

The biggest name of the group, though — and notwithstanding Walsh’s grandfather, Muhammad Ali — is Bowers.

After playing sparingly his first two seasons in Berkeley, Bowers started all 12 games during the 2017 season as he threw for 3,039 yards, 18 touchdowns and a dozen interceptions. While he started this season’s opener, the redshirt junior played sparingly the remainder of the year due to a combination of injury and evolving offensive scheme.

Bowers would be a graduate transfer if the move comes to fruition, so you can likely add his name to the list of ever-expanding quarterbacks who’ll be available on college football’s version of the free-agent market.

Clark and Singleton are the only others who played in any games this season, the former seeing action in two games and the latter in three. Brown played in a combined 24 games the previous three seasons, while Bankhead missed each of the last three seasons, including 2018, because of various injuries.

Share this:

A furious Texas A&M comeback effort led by Kellen Mond fell just short, as No. 2 Clemson raced to an early lead and held on for a 28-26 win in College Station.

The Aggies moved the ball consistently throughout the night but saw four drives of 30-plus yards end in some form of disaster. A&M opened the game by moving 66 yards before a missed Daniel LaCamera field goal, and also saw a 30-yard march end in a missed field goal.

Then, with the Aggies trailing 14-6 midway through the third quarter, Mond converted a 3rd-and-11 at the Clemson 44 by rushing 23 yards, setting up a 1st-and-10 at the 21. But Mond cramped up after the run, forcing backup Nick Starkel into the game. Clelin Ferrell immediately sacked Starkel, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Clemson’s Justin Foster.

After that, Mond came alive. He found Camron Buckleyfor a 69-yard completion, setting up a 9-yard scoring strike to Kendrick Rodgers to pull the Aggies (1-1) within 21-13 at the 4:22 mark of the third quarter.

Clemson answered that score, keyed by a 40-yard strike from Bryant to Hunter Renfrow, moving 75 yards in eight plays to set up Travis Etienne‘s 1-yard plunge, giving Clemson a 28-13 lead with a minute remaining in the third quarter.

But Mond immediately led the Aggies back, needing only a handful of snaps to travel 75 yards. Mond hit Quartney Davisfor a 14-yard touchdown grab, the first catch of any kind of his career, to bring the Aggies within 28-20 with 14:07 still to play.

The teams traded punts through the next three possessions until A&M moved in position to potentially tie the game, but Davis fumbled the ball through the end zone on a play that was ruled a fumble on the field and was impossible to overturn upon review.

That fumble gave Clemson the ball at its own 20 with 2:09 remaining, but the Tigers could not achieve a game-clinching first down, and Will Spiers‘s 22-yard punt handed the Aggies the ball at the Clemson 49 with 1:12 still to play.

Mond needed only 26 seconds to score, hitting Rodgers for a 10-yard gain, accepting a pass interference penalty on Clemson and then finding Rodgers again, this time for a 24-yard score.

Needing a two-point conversion to push the game into overtime, Mond was intercepted in the end zone.

Hunter Renfrow recovered the onside kick to clinch the win for Clemson. The win moves Clemson to 23-4 in one-score games in its last 27 such games.

In a losing effort, Mond was the star of the night, hitting 23-of-40 passes for 430 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions while also leading the Aggies’ ground efforts with 10 carries for 33 yards. Trayveon Williams rushed 17 times for 31 yards.

Clemson also failed to run the ball consistently, mustering 115 yards on 32 carries. Bryant was the Tigers’ leading rusher with 54 yards on 15 carries. Instead, Clemson (2-0) was carried by a handful of big plays in the passing game.

Trailing 3-0 in the first quarter, Bryant hit Amari Rodgers for a 64-yard gain, turning a 3rd-and-15 into a 1st-and-10 at the A&M 16. Bryant scored on a 1-yard dash four plays later to give Clemson a lead it would not relinquish through the first half.

After forcing an A&M punt, Clemson put freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence in the game, and the freshman immediately made the absolute most of his opportunity, finding Higginsfor a snatch-and-dash 64-yard score.

Bryant got the bulk of the duties for Clemson, playing the entire second half and completing 12-of-17 passes for 205 yards and a touchdown. Lawrence was 5-of-9 for 93 yards and a score. Etienne led all Clemson running backs with eight carries for 44 yards and a touchdown.

The win pushed Dabo Swinney to a four-game winning streak in his personal rivalry with Jimbo Fisher. Swinney now owns the ledger, 6-5. The Aggies and Tigers will complete their home-and-home in Clemson in Week 2 of next season.

Share this:

You know how I know we’re getting closer to the start of a new season? Yet another watch list.

The latest to release theirs is the Biletnikoff Award, with the honor going to the nation’s top receiver issuing a list consisting of 50 players from all nine FBS conferences as well as one independent (UMass). Headlining this year’s preseason list is West Virginia’s David Sills, who was a finalist for the 2017 award claimed by Oklahoma State’s James Washington. One other 2017 semifinalist is included as well, Ole Miss’ A.J. Brown.

Three conferences totaled seven players apiece, the ACC, Big 12 and MAC. That trio is followed by five each from Conference USA and four apiece for the AAC, Pac-12 and Sun Belt. The Big Ten and Mountain West each placed three.

Share this:

Years after losing out on a recruiting battle to Cal, Georgia is finally bringing Demetris Robertson to Athens. The former top-receiver recruit announced he will transfer to Georgia to continue his college football career. The announcement came in the form of a video posted on YouTube.

This time around, Robertson still had plenty of options to consider for his next stop in college football. With as much talent and potential as Robertson has to offer, that was to be expected. In the end, Robertson has decided to stay home and play for a program that appears to be ready to compete for SEC and national titles for the remainder of his collegiate career.

Robertson will have to sit out the 2018 season due to NCAA transfer rules, but he will return in 2019 with two years of eligibility to use.

Share this:

One Power Five football program is shortly going to be on the receiving end of a very talented gift a couple of weeks before summer camp kicks off.

Over the weekend, Demetris Robertson announced that he has whittled his transfer to-do list down to four schools — Alabama, Georgia, Texas and West Virginia. The gifted wide receiver will announce his new college of choice this coming Saturday.

This announcement comes a little over two weeks after Robertson took to Twitter to confirm that he would be transferring from Cal.

A five-star member of the Golden Bears’ 2016 recruiting class, Robertson was rated as the No. 1 receiver in the country; the No. 3 player at any position in the state of Georgia; and the No. 13 player overall on 247Sports.com‘s composite board. Robertson’s initial recruitment was an unusual one as he didn’t sign until May 1, nearly three months after National Signing Day, and then stunned the college football recruiting world by picking Cal over Notre Dame and home-state Georgia.

Given the fact that he’s from the state and described “personal matters” as his reason for leaving the Golden Bears, the Bulldogs are viewed by some as the favorite to land one of the fastest players in college football.

At Cal, Robertson, at least initially, lived up to the recruiting hype as he was second on the team as a true freshman with 50 receptions for 767 yards and seven touchdowns. His 15.3 yards per catch were tops on the team. After catching seven passes for 70 yards the first two games of the 2017 season, however, he was sidelined for the remainder of the year by what turned out to be a season-ending lower-body injury.

Robertson will have to sit out the 2018 season regardless of which school he ultimately chooses. He would then have two years of eligibility at his disposal beginning with the 2019 season.